The PennEast Pipeline company on Thursday announced it would file its formal application with federal authorities for permission to construct a $1.2 billion, 118-mile natural gas pipeline stretching from northeastern Pennsylvania to Mercer County.

At a 10 a.m. telephone conference with reporters, representatives from PennEast and trade groups said they would be filing the formal application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sometime Thursday, ending a nearly year-long pre-application period that has rallied New Jersey environmental groups, municipalities and elected officials against the proposal.

"The PennEast pipeline project is set to deliver reduced energy costs to residents and businesses, thousands of good jobs and a cleaner environment by cultivating clean-burning American energy," Peter Terranova, PennEast board chairman, said during the call.

PennEast, a consortium of natural gas companies that includes all four New Jersey gas providers, wants to build a 118-mile, 36-inch pipeline stretching from Northeastern Pennsylvania to Hopewell Township. It needs approval from the federal energy commission because the proposal crosses state lines.

There was no immediate timeline available Thursday for the federal approval process. PennEast has said, if approved, the pipeline would be operational in 2017.

Thursday's announcement was derided by environmental and opposition groups, including the New Jersey Sierra Club, New Jersey Conservation Foundation, the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association, the Delaware Riverkeeper, Clean Water Action, among others.

"The proposed PennEast pipeline would undermine and destroy decades of dedicated work to preserve land in this special region of New Jersey," said Michele Byers, executive director of New Jersey Conservation Foundation. "I am concerned not only about damage to these preserved lands, but also about what this means for the future of land preservation in our state."

However, the project would create just 21 permanent jobs directly dedicated to the upkeep of the pipeline, a company spokeswoman has said.

About 2,500 temporary construction workers would build the pipeline, a task expected to take about seven months, while the remainder of the 9,960 jobs cited in the Drexel study would be ancillary positions created by the estimated $1.6 billion in economic activity generated by the construction, a company spokeswoman has said.

For instance, if the operator of a taco truck pulled up to a construction area to feed hungry workers at lunchtime, that operator would be counted as one of the 12,160 jobs supported by the a pipeline, under the formula employed by the Drexel study.

Because only about a third of the property owners in the proposed pipeline's path through Hunterdon and Mercer counties have allowed the company to perform surveys, the DEP doesn't have enough information to determine which permits PennEast will need, according to a July 2 DEP letter.

Jack Herbert, of NJR Energy Resources, a partner in PennEast, said on Thursday's call that PennEast would continue to work with the DEP to determine which permits would be needed. He did not say whether more homeowners have allowed the company to survey.

"We will work with landowners as much as we practically can and continue to work with DEP while this goes on,'' Herbert said.